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Faced with extraordinarily bad press concerning her company's failed voting machines, which a NJ judge has now ordered to be independently examined (decidedly not by the "blonde nymph"-seeking dude Sequoia originally employed for their own "independent examination"), an impending hostile takeover by competitor Hart InterCivic, and her own boss's recent admission that the company doesn't even control the intellectual property rights to its own voting machines, Sequoia Voting Systems VP of Communications & External Affairs (and part owner), Michelle Shafer, has been left fairly desperate to find some "good news" lately with which to try and fool the company's clients.

But Never-Say-Die Shafer doesn't give up the ghost easily. So in a quick, if somewhat sad, bottom-of-the-barrel scraping article posted to her "Ballot Blog" at the Sequoia website this week, she attempted to trumpet the "Keystone State Success" for Sequoia, following last week's PA primary.

"Pennsylvania elections went very well last week," she writes. "We’ve had a chance to check in with our customers in York, Montgomery and Northampton counties, and it looks like it was a successful primary for all of them," blogged Shafer, before going on to quote the "success" of the company's voting systems, as reported by two different PA newspapers.

One selective quote, from one of the papers, sings the praises of Sequoia's AVC Advantage e-voting machines (the same ones which were found to have failed to tabulate votes correctly in NJ's recent Super Tuesday primary), because "Even the older people liked them."

But the same papers Shafer selectively quoted from also offered not-so-wonderful stories about the "success" of the company's machines in Pennsylvania.

Here's what Shafer --- who may as well tattoo a permanent "Kick Me!" sign on her back at this point --- seems to have forgotten to quote, from the very same articles she pointed to, in her blog item about them...

From the same Morning Call article from which Shafer quoted that "Officials reported no problems with" Sequoia's machines...

The day was not without mechanical glitches. When Brian Mack of Hanover Township, Northampton County, checked with poll workers right after casting his ballot on a new voting machine, he was told the vote hadn't been recorded.''They let me vote again,'' Mack said. ''But who knows how many other people voted and just left,'' not realizing that their votes hadn't been counted.

The line at Forks Township Elementary School was several dozen people deep and, most voters said, at least 20 minutes long. The reason?

"Not enough machines," volunteer Mary Lauer shouted out as she signed in a line of voters that seemingly never shortened.
...
At the Forks Township Community Center, poll workers said residents took their time getting acclimated to the new touchpad machines.

At the New Life Pentecostal Church on Easton's College Hill, one voter thought she was supposed to press the red "enter" button after each of her selections, said Al Kuebler, judge of elections there. The woman voted for a presidential nominee, Keubler said, but was unable to nominate candidates for other positions.

"She was not a happy camper," Keubler said.

Prior to running this item, as a courtesy, we asked Shafer for comment on the above, and to let us know if the machines in PA experienced the same inaccuracies discovered after the election in NJ. As usual, she failed to even offer us the courtesy of a "no comment" reply to our email.

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I would like to know why Northampton County didn't report local results for at least 24 hours. I was curious about the precinct results, but even more curious when they were unavailable even though the county aggregate results were.

I have to agree with Dredd. Most of the bloggers on the internet don't get paid one cent for their efforts. I don't want to throw Brad under the bus. I am grateful he allows everyone to post as long as they don't break the rules.

I have uncovered information which helps put into perspective how the election integrity movement got hijacked. I have taken time out for no compensation to figure out Mark Lindeman and his connections to Damschoeder and others who like the electronic voting machines. I uncovered things on ESI's director months ago and have yet to see one comment.

I deal with facts. Lindeman has been in Brad's face. I uncovered a lot of info concerning Hertzberg and Fintan Dunne. I have come up with enlightening info on Lindeman, who Brad didn't even know was his troll at Democratic Underground.

I don't understand why BradBlog doesn't see all this as an opportunity to expose the connection between astroturfers and pseudo/fake election integrity movements. Brad is all about paper ballots. Well, here is the proof that the loudest voices discrediting him are tied in with folks who promote the use of electronic machines.

Some things I have found were already discovered but haven't been blogged about too much. Professor Freeman has already questioned why Hertzberg and Liddle were ever hired. Kathy Dopp, I saw how she is fully aware of the connection between pseudo activists with psuedo auditors.

I am not saying I am a bag of chips or whatever. But I do find it curious why my findings which are FACTUAL are not being looked into.

MARK LINDEMAN IS ON THE ROPES.

But I guess it's best to just let the "crazy" Dopp and the "crazy" chemmie be the messengers. It's pretty strange how the obvious isn't being explained. But hey, how 'bout that Michael Gibbons? Yeehaw, check out Dent's phone go off during her lying speech.

I refuse to throw Brad under the bus, but I am curious why he hasn't even made one comment about Dredd's interest or with any of the stuff I have looked into. It wouldn't take more than a minute to post that he is very busy, but that he appreciates the efforts, and that he will look into these things when he can. That would be nice.

Verified Voting Foundation reeks bad. Same as Lindeman. Same as a lot of things that amateur bloggers are posting about which get buried because we have no name power or because we are seen as "conspiracy nutters." This is your chance Mr. Friedman to knock it out of the park. I don't begrudge you making a living off of your work. But I wish you wouldn't take the facts that us amateur internet sleuths uncover for granted.

It is really a drag when blogs cover up the greatest hacking story never told MSM style. Bigger than Curtis by a country mile.

I guess some stars think that if they don't break the story it isn't news.

"Cover up"? Are you nuts, Dredd? I spoke with Miriam Raftery (author of the excellent report you point to) both before her report came out, and since it's come out (in regard to additional info she's looking into).

You (and Socrates, who I'll respond to in a minute) may apparently find it hard to believe, but by and large, it's just me here, trying to cover the stories that it might take a team of ten to uncover and report on, and all the while, keep a blog rolling at the same time.

You may be surprised to learn that the stories I report, the big ones (see the Sequoia/Hart/Smartmatic brouhaha) actually require time to call folks, read hundreds of pages of documents, fact check, dig, call more folks, talk to sources, etc. etc.

Miriam's story on the San Diego hacker is terrific. Earlier this afternoon I was *finally* able to take a break from what I *must* do during business hours (see graf above) to read the entire thing (both parts) and put together a quick piece on it, which will run in the morning.

Do you think this shit reports itself, Dredd? Most of the time, I don't even have time to read comments here, but I often stay up till 4am or so, to try to do exactly that. When possible, and while being unable to read, much less answer, several hundred incoming emails a day.

Pay attention, please.

Socrates #3 asks:

I don't understand why BradBlog doesn't see all this as an opportunity to expose the connection between astroturfers and pseudo/fake election integrity movements.

First, I'd refer you to my comment to Dredd above. Secondly, while I can't do everything, and certainly not all at once, I'm glad to see you connecting various dots, even if it might be more effective if you got all ducks in a row and *then* presented them in some fashion (perhaps even as a Guest Blog here).

Nonetheless, I spend more time doing triage each day, then just about anything else. Deciding what I can and can't report, due to lack of time and resources, and prioritizing what needs to be told now, versus what can wait for later, for a more opportune time, perhaps. Or if I even have anything to add to it at all.

I am not saying I am a bag of chips or whatever. But I do find it curious why my findings which are FACTUAL are not being looked into.

Actually, as far as I can tell, *you're* looking into them. Which I'm happy to see. But if you feel I should stop what I'm doing to report what *you* want me to, right now, or what Dredd wants me to, right now, then both of you guys are fairly out of step with reality.

You use these comments thread to do exactly that (and occasionally tweak me, which is fine) but to suggest there is something insidious, as both you and Dredd have above is just, well, without substance, rather narrow-minded since it seems you have no clue of what I'm doing most of the day, and otherwise, largely just stupid.

I refuse to throw Brad under the bus, but I am curious why he hasn't even made one comment about Dredd's interest or with any of the stuff I have looked into.

See above, and I hope you'll find your answers in there somewhere. With a reminder that when you see me file a large, blockbuster-ish story here on a Tuesday at noon, it generally wasn't written at 11am that morning, but rather has been in the works for some time prior. Quietly, and often at the expense of my ability to roll something else here in the meantime to keep things lively while I'm otherwise deep deep into digging into a story to come. No, we don't have a staff of ten who can fill in for me while I'm out working a story for several days or a week or more. By and large, it's all just me, and I kinda thought you both had understood that by now.

I don't begrudge you making a living off of your work.

Cool. Let me know when that happens, Soc. Because with all of this, every single month I'm begging for donations, and getting almost ZERO, but continuing any way because if I don't do a lot of this shit, who will? Michelle Shafer?

But I wish you wouldn't take the facts that us amateur internet sleuths uncover for granted.

I take nothing for granted, Soc. I'm glad you do what you do. Please continue doing it. I often pull from the work that readers share with me, after they'd done much heavy lifting. Though you may want to consider keeping your findings to yourself until you've got a story nailed hard.

Right now, for the moment, there are higher priorities (for me) than smashing up Lindeman (who deserves much smashing up, for his appalling behavior at dKos, at DU, and largely everywhere else), or Fintan Dunne (who called me a "CIA fake", whatever that means, years ago, and is either out of his mind or up to something else, which by and large, everyone laughs at anyway, if they ever even heard of him) or Steve Hertzberg (who's a duplicitous dope, but thanks to folks like you won't be getting very far publicly anymore, because you've found out his scam).

Should he, or any of the others, show up in a position of responsibility again, as Hertzberg with ESI in Cuyahoga, I'll be more than happy to expose him for the fake that he is. Thanks to you, that's largely already happened.

Until then, it's priorities and triage for me. And dozens of stories that I'd love to cover, for which there are simply not enough hours in the day (literally!). But I thank you both for giving me the opportunity to spend 30 minutes on this nonsense, instead of doing something that I suspect each of you would find to be much more value. I know I certainly would.

I'm sincerely sorry. There was some poll on the tv saying Barack was leading McCain by only 3%. Nothing is adding up. The fascism is eating away at my soul, and I took it out on yourself for no good reason.

Nicely put, Brad. I don't always agree with you and others here on the details, but I do appreciate that you work hard at it and often come up with the real goods. I'll take you over Shafer any day. Write on.